Richard Wagner was born on May 22nd, 1813, in Leipzig Germany during the Napoleonic Wars.
理查德·瓦格纳1813年5月22日出生在拿破仑战争期间的德国莱比锡。
His father Friedrich Wagner died of typhus shortly after he was born.
其父亲弗里德里希·瓦格纳在他出生后不久因斑疹伤寒去世。
He was introduced to music and theater by his stepfather, actor Ludwig Gaya.
他的继父路德维希·加亚是一位演员,他把瓦格纳引入音乐和戏剧的世界。
Wagner's early idols were Ludwig Van Beethoven and William Shakespeare.
瓦格纳早期的偶像是路德维希·凡·贝多芬和威廉·莎士比亚。
Second only to Beethoven, Wagner was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century.
瓦格纳是19世纪最有影响力的作曲家之一,仅次于贝多芬。
His German Romantic operas demands such intense levels of stamina and power
他的德式浪漫主义歌剧需要强烈的持久力和力量,
that even today there are few performers who can properly convey many roles, such as Tristan and Isolde, Brynhild and Siegfried.
即使在今天,也很少有演员能够恰当地演绎他的许多角色,比如特里斯坦与伊索尔德、伯伦希尔和齐格弗里德。
Wagner desire to do away with earlier Italian and French styles of opera.
瓦格纳希望摒弃早期意大利和法国歌剧风格。
From this, he developed Gesamtkunstwerk or a total work of art, a style of opera in which all aspects,
基于这种理念,他发展出总体艺术作品,这种歌剧风格包罗万象,
including music, philosophy, acting and stage design are all equally as important.
涵盖音乐、哲学、表演和舞台设计,各个方面都同样重要。
Later in life, his polemical ideas and essays were more well known than his compositions.
晚年时,他的思辨理念和随笔比其作曲更为人所知。
He published an essay which ruthlessly attacked Jewish musicians, including Felix Mendelssohn.
他发表了一篇文章,无情地抨击了费利克斯·门德尔松等犹太音乐家。
Years after Wagner's death, his writings on anti-Semitism were adopted by a of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
瓦格纳过世数年后,其关于反犹太主义的著作被阿道夫·希特勒和纳粹所采纳。
Richard Wagner died of a heart attack in Venice Italy on February 13th 1883 at the age of 69.
1883年2月13日,理查德·瓦格纳在意大利威尼斯因心脏病过世,享年69岁。